More Thanksgiving Fun

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed out to my aunt and uncle's farm. Two of my aunt and uncles from Kansas came up to see everyone and we didn't want to miss them. Somehow I didn't get any pictures of them. I guess when there is a cute baby around my focus on pictures is distracted or something. :)

Not only did we get to see my aunts and uncles, we got another chance to eat turkey and mashed potatoes!! YUM!! And of course play with Sarah!! Who wouldn't want to head out to the farm with a few hours like that?!?!

She is such a doll. I love my boys and am very thankful that I have them!! Wouldn't have it any other way. But I do have to admit that it is so great to play with a girl!

We chatted and ate lunch.

Had a great time hanging out with each other!

My aunt Jane had a cool ipad that she was nice enough to let the boys play with.

It is a cool device!! I wouldn't mind having one of those things myself!!

Later Alex went outside to play Spiderman.

In Iowa he got this cool Spiderman web shooter for Christmas. (It shoots out silly string) It is obviously a HUGE hit with him!!

He was shooting "bad guys" left and right.

And of course what is a trip out to the farm without Wade getting out some sort of equipment for the boys to ride on. This time it was the lawn mower!! They had a blast!!

It was really great to see everyone, even if it was a short visit! We are looking forward to the next time we can do it again.

November Update

Earlier this month I had my 36th birthday. I bought gobs of makeup, joined a gym and hired a personal trainer. That pretty much sums up how I feel about being closer to 40 than 30. I wonder what I will do when I turn 40! Yikes. Seriously though- It was nice and uneventful.

On my birthday, I celebrated with Matt and the boys. I even got to open presents!! For some reason I don't understand, Alex was REALLY worried I wasn't going to like what he got me.

There was no need to worry at all! He got me a really pretty necklace and earrings.

Josh got me slippers, Zach got me a pretty sweater and Matt got me a KINDLE!!! Honestly I was unsure if I would like it. I LOVE the smell and feel of a book. I like the flipping of pages and dog earing them when I need to stop reading. I, also, love passing on a good book to someone else. With all that said- I do have to admit- I love my new kindle. In fact, this morning I was reading on it and Josh came and snuggled up with me so he could "read" with me. While I read the book I am reading, Josh read the words he knew on the page. His highlight was getting to push the button to turn the page. That kid is SO INTO electronics it's a little scary!! Anyway- I would highly recommend one. They are pretty cool.

That weekend we went out to my aunt and uncles farm. My aunt and I have a birthday two days apart so we have always celebrated them together for as long as I can remember! And, honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

So I mentioned that I turned 36.....look what age Mary Carol turned!!

How cool is that!! 36 and 63!! We were all very impressed by that!! I don't think that will ever happen to us again. It just made our birthday a little extra special!

Kids in costumes are just awesome, don't you think? So we dressed them up again. Which for my boys wasn't any different from the days since Halloween. I think they would wear their costumes to school everyday if they could. They were very happy to show them off again. And look how cute Sarah is as a tootsie roll!!!

We got to play with Sarah- my cousin Wade and Allison's little girl. She is a doll!! We all love spending time with her!

That night it snowed!! The first snow of the season....which means it's also the first snowball fight!! The next morning the boys had a blast shoveling snow! Let's hope that lasts throughout the season!!

In fact, they went all the way down the block.

You're welcome neighbors!

After shoveling, they made snowmen.

or had snowball fights with the neighbor kids. Either way they had a blast out in the snow!

Other news- we put our house back up for sale. We were planning on taking a break. But after we took it off the market, realtor after realtor called us. So we decided to interview a few, just to get a fresh pair of eyes in here and see if there was something we could do differently. We really liked what this one realtor had to say and have rolled the dice again with him. So far- I am happy to say we have had 3 house showings in one week and a realtor tour. We got lots of feedback from the tour which was very nice. So we will see what happens. Fingers crossed!!

SURPRISE!!!

This year my mom and Ralph celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in June. My aunt Mary Carol thought it would be fun to throw them a surprise anniversary party. And boy did we surprise them!! My parents thought that it was going to be a Fourth of July picnic- which is was- but it was also a surprise!

Having a party at my aunt and uncle's house is always a blast!! They live on a farm and there is tons to do!! Some of my parents friends and family came out to the farm to join in on the surprise. My aunts and uncles from Kansas even came up to surprise them as well!! It's always great to see them and I was happy that they were able to make it. We had a yummy buffet of food!

And had a picnic outside!

After we ate, some people chatted and some people played croquet. My boys seemed to play croquet more like golf- with teeing up the ball and swinging the mallet more like a club. But whatever. No one seemed to mind. There weren't any refs or umps around.

There was a "tractor" ride at one point.

But I think the most popular event was the oohing and ahhing over Sarah!

She is one cute baby!! And so easy going!!

It was her first big party and she was so good about being passed around!

Alex, Allison, Sarah, Josh, & Zach

And NO- it does NOT make me want to have another baby. That was a popular question that night. I will just spoil Sarah and visit her as much as Wade and Allison allow.

After awhile fireworks started to happen. Of course, you always start with the parachutes. It was really windy so there wasn't a lot of catching them. But the boys still had fun chasing after the parachutes.

Of course- what's a party without cake?

After cake it was a little darker, so the boys did sparklers.

And as it got darker, the lightning bugs came out. So fun was had by catching them.

Josh with one on his arm

They would put the in a cup, catch more, and then when they were done we released them.

To end the night we (meaning the boys, Matt and Harry) lit off a few more fireworks. I am not camera savvy enough to get awesome shots of the fireworks, but they were pretty. I just got some so-so shots of the men/boys lighting them.

All in all it was a great evening filled with love, family, friends, food, and fun!! What more could you ask for?

The Storm

Tuesday evening another storm came through the Omaha area. For us, this one wasn't to bad. The worst thing that happened was that our for sale sign blew over. Not a big deal at all. We didn't even get hail. The weather is so weird and strange to me. My aunt and uncle live about 10 minutes north of us (Bennington) and they had horrible damage. And then the areas about 10 minutes south of us had hail, strong winds, heavy rain and flooding. It was like all around us was bad but we were ok. I just find that strange.

Anyway, originally we had planned on going out to my aunt and uncle's farm Wednesday morning. I was going to drop off the boys and do a couple of errands. However after this happened.....

...our plans changed. Instead, we came out to be looky-lous and then stayed to help pick up sticks.

Luckily, my aunt and uncle are fine and their house is fine. However, other buildings on their farm are not. I think I will just let the pictures to do the "talking."




This picture is the most impressive to me.

Its not a super great picture by any means. It more that the middle of the tree is standing and the rest of the tree is on the ground. How does that happen? And how does a tree get uprooted by wind?!?! Not a tornado- wind.

While we were out there, the boys got to run and explore. Recently they had just planted corn in their field. So the boys were a little confused that they couldn't run out there anymore. My aunt took them out there to show them and Zach found a corn cob with corn still on it and wanted to plant it. He did that for quite a while. He was very careful to fill in the empty spots of the row of corn. In fact later he told me that was his favorite part of the day. Looks like I may have a farmer on my hands.

When it got to be about lunchtime my uncle Harry suggested that we start a fire and cook some hot dogs. I think they are going to be having a LOT of bonfires this summer!! :) Not only did the boys get to help start the fire, but they got to cook their own hot dogs! How cool is that to a 5 year old? Really- we all thought this was great fun!! And delicious too!!! Its my favorite way to cook a hot dog- and I rarely get to do that, as an open flame in the city is not recommended. :)

As a reward for picking up sticks, Harry gave them a tractor/lawn mower ride. Josh and Zach were in heaven.

Alex decided that it was too loud and had NO INTEREST in going. He chose this tractor ride instead.

I am sad that this had to happen to my aunt and uncle. Its sad to see so many trees down! But I am so thankful that they are ok!! It could have been so much worse!